The 1963 FA Cup Final was the final of the
1962–63 FA Cup
The 1962–63 FA Cup was the 82nd staging of the world's oldest football cup competition, the Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup. Manchester United won the competition for only the third time, beating Leicester City ...
, the 82nd season of England's premier club
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
competition. The match was played at
Wembley Stadium
Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...
(which was fully roofed for the first time) on 25 May 1963 and contested by
Manchester United
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...
and
Leicester City
Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands.
The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...
. United won 3–1, with a goal from
Denis Law
Denis Law (born 24 February 1940) is a Scottish former footballer who played as a forward. His career as a football player began at Second Division Huddersfield Town in 1956. After four years at Huddersfield, he was signed by Manchester City ...
and two from
David Herd, lifting the trophy for the third time, while City had now played in three FA Cup finals and had still yet to win the trophy.
Ken Keyworth
Ken Keyworth (24 February 1934 – 7 January 2000) was a professional association football, footballer in the 1950s and 1960s who played for Rotherham United F.C., Rotherham United, Coventry City F.C., Coventry City and Swindon Town F.C., Swindo ...
scored the consolation goal for Leicester.
Match
Build-up
Despite fielding nine internationals United had struggled during the season while their opponents City had performed well, doing the league double over United in the process and thus entered the final as slight favourites. The importance of televised coverage came to the fore this year as the two sides tossed for choice of colours despite traditionally wearing red and blue shirts respectively. Those colours would look identical to the viewers on their black and white televisions so Leicester, having lost the toss switched to white.
Game
The opening fifteen minutes of the game were error strewn and Leicester could easily have found themselves three goals in front as United's goalkeeper, David Gaskell, presented them with three opportunities to fire into an unguarded net. On each occasion, Keyworth, Stringfellow and Gibson in turn were unable to finish the moves off with a last-ditch United challenge keeping the scoreline blank.
Having survived the third scare in the fifteenth minute, United took a stranglehold on the match which they never relinquished, peppering Gordon Banks goalmouth with several shots off target before finally taking the lead after half an hour. A Bobby Charlton shot had been saved comfortably by Banks, who then bowled the ball out to Gibson. Paddy Crerand read the throw and raced in to intercept the ball twenty-five yards from the Leicester goal before passing to Denis Law, who turned and fired past Banks and two defenders to open the scoring. Indeed, Law could have had a second goal ten minutes later when he took the ball around Banks but was unable to steer the ball into the goal under pressure from two defenders.
Leicester improved at the start of the second half and were presented with yet another chance by the nervous Gaskell, who dropped the ball at the feet of Cross who was unable to get his shot on target. United though gradually regained their supremacy and deservedly sealed Leicester's fate after fifty-seven minutes when a cross field ball from Giles found Charlton unmarked. He raced into the box and shot at Banks who could only parry the shot into the path of David Herd who tapped into the empty net, triggering victorious choruses of "
When the reds go marching in" from the United fans.
Leicester got a lifeline with ten minutes left when a speculative Frank McLintock shot was met by Ken Keyworth, who scored with a well placed diving header. This raised the tension levels but there remained little sign of a Leicester fightback as United continued to dominate with Law hitting the post with a header a minute before the game was finally won in the eighty-fifth minute. The otherwise competent Banks came for a Giles cross and fumbled the ball into the path of Herd, who turned and fired past two defenders on the goal line to complete the victory.
Broadcasting
The game was broadcast live on BBC television as a cup final special edition of
Grandstand
A grandstand is a normally permanent structure for seating spectators. This includes both auto racing and horse racing. The grandstand is in essence like a single section of a stadium, but differs from a stadium in that it does not wrap a ...
, making it the 19th cup final to be broadcast live on television. The programme was presented by
David Coleman
David Robert Coleman OBE (26 April 1926 – 21 December 2013) was a British sports commentator and television presenter who worked for the BBC for 46 years. He covered eleven Summer Olympic Games from 1960 to 2000 and six FIFA World Cups from ...
from pitchside, where he spent the build-up to the game interviewing the players and officials as they walked onto the field an hour before kick-off. He then handed over to commentator
Ken Wolstenholme, who was acting as the television commentator for his 11th FA Cup final. The match was broadcast in black and white, so the BBC requested that one team change kit, as the red of Manchester United and blue of Leicester would be indistinguishable to the viewers; Leicester was the team to change, wearing their white away kit. A newsreel broadcast was also shown in cinemas that evening by both
Pathé
Pathé or Pathé Frères (, styled as PATHÉ!) is the name of various French people, French businesses that were founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France starting in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world's largest ...
and
Movietone, both in colour. BBC radio coverage was provided by
Raymond Glendenning
Raymond Carl Glendenning (25 September 1907 – 23 February 1974) was a BBC radio sports commentator and occasional character actor.
Early years
He was born in Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales, and was educated at Newport High School and the Unive ...
and
Alan Clarke
Alan John Clarke (28 October 1935 – 24 July 1990) was an English television and film director, producer and writer.
Life and career
Clarke was born in Wallasey, Wirral, England.
Most of Clarke's output was for television rather than cinema, ...
, with a young
Brian Moore acting as pitchside reporter.
National anthem
The tradition at the end of the cup final was always to play the national anthem after the cup and medals had been presented but the United players were criticised in the press for not respecting this tradition as they began hoisting Cantwell onto the shoulders of Quixall and Crerand as the band began to play. Nearby journalists had to tell the United players to stop. The practice was done away with from the following season.
Post-match
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
commentator
Kenneth Wolstenholme
Kenneth Wolstenholme, DFC & Bar (17 July 1920 – 25 March 2002) was an English football commentator for BBC television in the 1950s and 1960s. He is best remembered for his commentary during the 1966 FIFA World Cup Final; in the closing min ...
speculated that United's victory was as a result of their having been more match sharp, having had to play to avoid relegation right to the end of the season while Leicester had lost their sharpness with nothing to play for in the closing weeks of the season.
When interviewed after the match by
David Coleman
David Robert Coleman OBE (26 April 1926 – 21 December 2013) was a British sports commentator and television presenter who worked for the BBC for 46 years. He covered eleven Summer Olympic Games from 1960 to 2000 and six FIFA World Cups from ...
this was a view shared by United manager
Matt Busby
Sir Alexander Matthew Busby (26 May 1909 – 20 January 1994) was a Scottish association football, football player and manager, who managed Manchester United F.C., Manchester United between 1945 and 1969 and again for the second half of the 197 ...
who felt that his team were a side of big-game players while winning captain Noel Cantwell felt that their poor league placing had made it increasingly hard for the team as the season had gone on. Neither Leicester manager
Matt Gillies
Matthew Muirhead Gillies (12 August 1921 – 24 December 1998) was a Scottish football player and manager who played for, captained, coached and managed Leicester City for a total of 15 years between 1952–1955 and 1956–1968. He is the club's ...
nor captain Colin Appleton offered any excuses and both merely felt that their side had underperformed on the day and been outplayed by a better team, Appleton adding "I can't understand how that team (United) finished where they did in the league."
Match details
External links
Line-ups
{{DEFAULTSORT:1963 Fa Cup Final
Final
Final, Finals or The Final may refer to:
*Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event
** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...
FA Cup Finals
Fa Cup Final 1963
The 1963 FA Cup Final was the final of the 1962–63 FA Cup, the 82nd season of England's premier club football competition. The match was played at Wembley Stadium (which was fully roofed for the first time) on 25 May 1963 and contested by Manch ...
Fa Cup Final 1963
The 1963 FA Cup Final was the final of the 1962–63 FA Cup, the 82nd season of England's premier club football competition. The match was played at Wembley Stadium (which was fully roofed for the first time) on 25 May 1963 and contested by Manch ...
Events at Wembley Stadium
FA Cup Final in the United Kingdom
FA Cup Final
The FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the FA Cup, Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the List of sports attendance figures, most attended domestic football ev ...